Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Premium Cigars Part 1 – Tobacco

With the amount of history and passion involved in the creation of handmade cigars, it’s no wonder they have transformed from “habit” to “hobby.” Still, in the end, cigars are as complicated as you want to make them. So if you have no interest in deepening your knowledge, feel free to navigate elsewhere. If, however, you wish to go deeper down the rabbit hole, then by all means, please continue.

There is so much to know about cigars that it’s hard to know where to begin, but a good frame of reference is wine:

• Like wine grapes, cigar tobacco is the product of seeds and “terroir,” or the local soil and weather conditions • Like many wines, different outcomes are achieved by mixing various components in various proportions • Both cigars and wine are handmade, natural agricultural products

Cigar tobacco is an art unto itself. Tobacco seeds are germinated in a greenhouse before the seedlings are planted out in the fields. Once ready for harvest, each “level” of leaves from the tobacco plants (called primings) is harvested in its own time. The varying levels of the tobacco plant correspond to the tobacco’s strength and aroma, with the uppermost leaves being the strongest. From top to bottom, the primings are Ligero, Viso, Seco, and Volado (sand leaves, not generally used).

Once harvested, the tobacco is cured (dried) in a curing barn to achieve the proper moisture content, and then fermented to convert the sugars, rid them of ammoniacs, and make them palatable. After fermentation, they may be aged additionally. The term “maduro,” literally “mature,” refers to various processes of heat and pressure which cause the tobacco to become even darker and sweeter. While often applied to color, it ought to be applied only to tobacco which has been processed using these techniques. As you will soon discover, cigar makers have no problems thoroughly confusing cigar smokers by using terms interchangeably.

Lou Tenney

When he's not busy writing, editing, smoking cigars, or raising his many, many children, Hayward " "It's Lou, not Hayward" " Tenney spends his days combating confusion about his real name (it's Hayward, but please - call him " "Lou" ") and mourning the matrimonially-induced loss of his moustache (what's he gonna do with all that moustache wax he made?).